Singing for my supper

"The debut album from Alabama singer/songwriter Frederick James Mullis, Jr., who operates under the old tobacco baseball card-worthy nom de plume Early James, Singing for My Supper has the faded patina of a pull-tab beer can or a museum-bound ship's manifest. James' bluesy croon bears a resemblance to weathered '60s and '70s singer/songwriters like Mickey Newbury, Fred Neil, and Harry Chapin, and his offbeat arrangements and guitar noodling often echo the cosmic British-folk stylings of John Martyn. Still, for all of its retro-trappings, the ten-song set is delivered with enough vitality to mitigate the fact that it often feels like it just tumbled out of some old hobo's knapsack".

Read review

"The singer/songwriter keeps his tunes tight-only one breaks the four minute mark at 4:01-and the entire disc clocks in at just over a half hour. But there is plenty to chew on and, like Logan Ledger, Early James is a young artist infused with the ghosts of another time. His shape-shifting music is impossible to pigeonhole but after spending 35 minutes with it, you'll understand that Auerbach has once again found a new, distinctive, impressively mature and strikingly focused talent with a bright future".

Read review